Online lecture – Fascist legacies at the university: Driving new approaches in conservation and display
Type: Arqus, Arqus European University Alliance
Format: Online
Open to: Academics & researchers, Admin. Staff, Early Post-docs, General public, HE managers, Master's students, PhD Students, Students, Teachers
Join us on the fifth session of the “Critical heritage studies at Arqus: concepts, approaches and findings” online guest lecture series, titled “Fascist legacies at the university: Driving new approaches in conservation and display”, with Carmen Belmonte (University of Padua). The online lecture will take place on 15 January 2026 at 18:00 CET.
In this lecture, Carmen Belmonte (University of Padua) will present the legacy of Fascism in Italy, focusing on the management of works of art commissioned by the regime. Spanning from the fall of the regime in 1943 to the present day, the speaker will explore the evolving reception of fascist remains, from iconoclasm to conservation, until the more recent attempts of critical preservation. The lecture aims to highlight enduring tensions between historical, aesthetic, and political values by exploring the crucial role of universities in catalysing paradigm shifts in the conservation and display of artefacts from the Fascist era.
About the speaker
Carmen Belmonte is an Assistant Professor of Museology, History of Art Criticism and Conservation at the University of Padua. She coordinates the research group Decolonising Italian Visual and Material Culture at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History within the collaborative project SPAZIDENTITÀ, promoted by the École Française de Rome (2022–2026).
Before her position in Padua, she taught at the University of Florence and at Roma Tre University. She was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, New York, at the American Academy in Rome, and at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut.
Her research focuses on the visual and material culture of Italian colonialism, on the legacies of fascism, and on cultural heritage in post-disaster scenarios. Her book Arte e colonialismo in Italia. Oggetti, immagini, migrazioni (1882-1906), was published in 2021 by Marsilio Editori. She also edited the volume A Difficult Heritage: The Afterlives of Fascist-Era Art and Architecture (Silvana Editoriale, 2023).